GENERAL NEWS

BURNET BELL TENTS

Housians Harry (2015) and Archie (2017) Burnet set up Burnet Bell Tents. Their mother, Bridget Burnet, bought three bell tents sleeping up to 8 people for Harry’s 18th birthday party. Rather than sell the tents on, the brothers decided to rent the tents out, fully furnished, during the summer of 2020. The brothers received an incredible amount of interest, putting up 30 tents during July and August alone and donating £10 per tent hired to the NHS charities. The business is based in Towcester, Northamptonshire, and covers a radius of 20 miles, although Harry and Archie are happy to travel further afield. For more information, visit www.burnetbelltents.com BEN DUCKETT’S T20 BLAST VICTORY

Ben Duckett’s (2008) half-century (53 not out in 38 balls) led Notts County Cricket to a second T20 Blast victory as they beat Surrey to haul in a winning target of 128 with six wickets and 16 balls to spare. The Class of 2020 joined Ben for a virtual Q&A session as part of their leavers programme. Ben gave invaluable advice on achieving your goals in life.

CULWORTH FUN RUN 2020

A total of 30 runners took part in the Culworth Fun Run on Sunday 13th September 2020, the highest number yet to take on Housian Rupert Rowling’s (2000) ‘undulating’ course. Sponsored for the second year by Winchester House, the sun was once again shining as Head Emma Goldsmith started the race to loud cheers. Flora McGowan (Year 8) was the first child to cross the finishing line of the 2.5 mile lap of the village, with parents Simon Martin and Harry & Emma McGowan completing two laps. Huge thanks to runners, marshalls, friends and relatives for supporting this fantastic community event.

Photo sourced from PA Wire.

Competitors Harry and Flora McGowan.

JOHN CHAPMAN (19541960) HIGHLIGHTS BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION

I have found that being an active member of Butterfly Conservation has many rewards, particularly helping to improve butterfly habitat, sending in observations of species results via a butterfly app, championing a 10k tetrad local to your area and joining in walks to find rarer species. This is without attending area meetings and even national meetings. This is a pastime that anyone can be involved in, no matter how small the part and just taking time to add sightings to the app, goes a long way to understanding migration and preference for habitat and it is fun. Furthermore, anyone can join Butterfly Conservation in their area via the website and be certain that they are doing their bit to help save our wonderful butterflies from extinction.

With all the charities out there these days, all vying for funding, Butterfly Conservation often is overlooked and is so vitally important. I really believe this is an excellent pastime for children to become involved in, and would rather champion this than all the work I have done over the years.

www.butterfly-conservation.org

Duke of Burgundy butterfly.

JAMES SMITH STARS IN STOWE’S ‘CORAM BOY’

Drama Scholar James Smith (2020), performed as part of the Stowe Senior Congreve ‘Coram Boy’, an historical fiction based on ‘Coram’ the UK’s first dedicated children’s charity. The charity was established by Thomas Coram as the Foundling Hospital, London’s first home for babies whose mothers were unable to care for them. Unscrupulous men, known as ‘Coram men’, took advantage of the situation by promising desperate mothers to take their unwanted children to the hospital for a fee, and sadly the babies did not always make their way there. James played Toby, an orphan saved from an African slave ship who managed to achieve freedom from one of the ‘Coram men’. The production was cleverly combined as a hybrid of a live stage performance, with the inclusion of extracts of film in December 2020. A number of Housians were cast members and included Oliver Acors (Drama Scholarship), Eleanor Butler, Grace Reilly (Drama Scholar), Jack Robbins (Drama Exhibition), Jemima Pearson-Gee and Jet West.

Right: Housian Will Berner (2006) of Ablinq oversaw photography and filming.

MUSICAL REVUE

Bloxham School’s December 2020 ‘Musical Revue’ production, featured a wide range of songs from awardwinning musicals, and starred many Housians. Henry White (2017

and with a Sixth Form Drama

Scholarship) sang ‘Get Down’ from Six, ‘You’ll be back’ from Hamilton and ‘Agony’ from Into the Woods. Christina White (2016) performed ‘Sincerely Me’ from Dear Evan Hanson, Morgan Tinkler (2016) performed ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’ from Jamie and Jack Phillips (2016) oversaw all the tech on the night. What a fantastic production for our Housians to be so heavily involved in.

BEST SHORT FILM

Actor and Housian Tom Greaves (1994) starred in the film ‘Shuttlecock’ that was voted Best Short Film at the British Film Institute’s London Film Festival in October 2020. WHS promoted the film’s nomination on its social media feeds, and Tom contacted School after the awards to thank everyone for voting online. Tom hopes to come to School after lock down to give a drama workshop.

Image courtesy of www.ukfilmreview.co.uk WHS HEAD TRICK AT STOWE

Housians Mimi Pearson-Gee and Barnaby Peppiatt (2016) are Head Boy and Head Girl for the academic year 2020-2021 at Stowe School. Mimi and Barnaby are pictured here at the Leavers’ Ball at WHS in 2016.

MONGOL RALLY REVISITED

Year 5 children joined Housians

Louis de Gale, Rory Cronin and

Angus Donald (2015) for a virtual ‘Ignition’ talk on Friday 5th June 2020. The Housians enthused about their rescheduled July 2021 10,000 mile ‘Mongol Rally’ road trip from the gates of Winchester House School, one third of the way around the earth to Ulan-Ude in Siberia in aid of the charities Young Minds and Cool Earth. The children were fascinated by the pictures of the boys’ 1000cc, 15 year old, five seat, £700 Smart car which they had adapted in the DT Department at Oundle School, and tales of the places they plan to visit on route, including the Horse Games Festival in the Mongolian Steppes. As Rory said, ‘We will be challenged in a way we have never been challenged before’. We look forward to waving you off from the front gates of Winchester House!

FINDERS RETURNERS

We were delighted, and amused, to receive a parcel from an anonymous Housian. He wrote, ‘In the 1960’s, when I left WHS, there was a vogue for taking a souvenir; a vogue to which I succumbed, and for which I am sorry. ‘The enclosed, to the best of my memory, came from the wrought ironwork of the Reading Room door.’

Thank you, Sender, for returning the pretty iron roses and bolt which have now been restored to their original home.

‘DORMITORY EVENING’

Housian Lt Commander Colin Harris (1940-45) and former School Secretary Barbara Harris (1976-79) joined boarders on Friday 28th February 2020 for a ‘Fun Friday’ in boarding, in the form of a WW2 ‘Dormitory Evening’. The evening kicked off with a wartime tea with Barbara and Colin in the Drawing Room, with the children tucking into Spam, corned beef, boiled cabbage and mashed potatoes beautifully researched and prepared by our Catering Team. The main course was given a ‘thumbs up’, with a pudding of baked apples (with rationed sugar), purposefully VERY lumpy custard and mugs of Ovaltine being

equally popular. All present then ‘retired’ to the Reading Room and it’s roaring fire to ask Colin and Barbara questions about the war from the comfort of bean bags. Barbara told the children about growing up in British Honduras (Belize) during the war, as her Father was posted there. As the evening settled in, everyone then enjoyed playing tiddly winks, pick up sticks, jacks, card games, dominoes and started on a 1,000 piece wartime jigsaw! Everyone had a fantastic evening and Colin and Barbara agreed to come back in future years.

PETER BARR

Former Master Peter Barr (19901995), who lives in Perthshire, appeared in a Heartland Radio pantomime which was broadcast over the festive period. Peter was Ivan the Incredible, the villain who came to a sticky end! Most of the virtual action was based in and around Pitlochry and it was recorded with all actors in self isolation. A recording can be heard at https:// www.heartland.scot/on-demand/ podcasts/aladdin-a-panto-for-radio/

Peter also continues his ‘Cycle For Maria’ campaign for Maggie’s Cancer Care, Dundee, in memory of his late wife Maria. To date, he has covered 18,635 miles and raised £10,916.00. On emailing ‘House’ in February, he wrote “The roads round here are too icy for cycling just now, so I'm walking most days until it’s safe again for two wheels; meanwhile every 20 miles walked are added to the total distance. I normally make a donation of £250 for every additional 400 miles. In the very near future the total raised will pass £11,000.00.” H

ERRATUM

It is with our sincere apologies that the caption of this picture of the Hayman family with the scholars of 1949 was printed incorrectly in House, Issue 11, Spring 2018. The photo was supplied by Judy MartinJenkins from one of her mother’s albums. It was evidently taken during the coaching week for boys being put in for scholarships in 1949, i.e. in April 1949. Sara (standing) was three and Judy (seated) was one year old. This was the last coaching week that CHTH held as he died on 21 May 1950 after a period of illness. ERRATUM

This photo was captioned incorrectly in Issue 11. The caption should read: Mrs Marjorie Meikle (née Hoskings, hence her nickname Hosky) with her daughter, Jean Meikle, sitting on a pony. H